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Bendis' Daredevil Part 9: Decalogue

I have a feeling 'Decalogue' is an arc that ended differently than Bendis intended. Don't quote me, but I swear when I first read the announcement for this that it would be ten issues long, with each issue being a stand-alone story focusing on one of the Ten Commandments and that we would see the return of Matt's mother, Sister Maggie. The arc instead was five issues long, with the first two being stand-alone stories and then following a more linear story for the rest of the duration. It's not bad, there's some great writing and art here, but it does feel a little uneven.

The story takes place in the year-long absence between 'Hardcore' and 'The King of Hell's Kitchen'.

They ask her if she saw his face, and she said she didn't because of the light. She goes on to say that her life changed a week later, when she had gotten in with some bad people looking to make a name for themselves. They're in cahoots with Bullet, an old Daredevil villain. She pulls a gun on them when she hears that they're going to kill Daredevil, and that's when ol' hornhead himself arrives. After a quick battle, Bullet and the rest of the thugs are defeated.

Someone asks why Daredevil dresses as the Devil. The guy all in black says that it represents more than anyone can handle, and that it hides horrible secrets.

#72...

So the weird guy in black is asked about what he knows, but he says that if he tells Daredevil's secrets, he would be telling his secrets, and that he will only tell them until everyone else shares theirs.

So we go to the guy with red hair and the beard, and we flashback to him meeting his father in prison.

So the guy goes to visit the Russian.

The Russian says that it's not for Matt, it's for Foggy Nelson.

Back at home, the guy's wife tells him that his father is a bad man, but he's not. She tells him that he can't his love because it doesn't exist.

The guy visits Josie's Bar and...

So the first two stories have been fairly conventional; normal people who have had their lives changed by Daredevil. But starting with #73, the story starts to get weird.

The woman says that she saw the little demon-baby perched on her husband's shoulder and whispering into his ear, either giggling or crying.

Another woman there gets upset and slaps her, saying that she's lying.

We see her story, how she was attacked by the woman's husband in a parking garage wearing a Spider-Man mask. Daredevil rescues her, but the man appears to have supernatural powers as fire comes out of his eyes. She says she came here to find out why the Devil saved her life, not this delusion about babies whispering into ears. Everyone starts arguing with each other (the weird guy in black has a smirk on his face through all of this) when an older woman pulls out a picture.

#74...

The story opens with the wedding of Matt and Milla.

The old woman explains that she worked at the Hell's Kitchen Housing Commission and was good friends with Milla Donovan and was there when they got married. Later, her daughter is later caught in a bank robbery by the Jester.

Sure enough, Daredevil brings home her daughter.

She says her life is over because of this and asks the priest why this is happening.

#75... (which was double-sized)

Matt says it would be safe if everyone left so he could deal with this man (who is called Lawrence) but he understands that they need closure. He says if anyone wants to leave, he'll make sure Lawrence won't hurt them.He says that Lawrence was lying and that he doesn't have special ninja powers.

Matt explains what went on with the Jester robbing the bank. Something was different with him this time. There, the Jester takes the older woman's daughter hostage but something goes wrong.

The 'baby' reaches for the girl's mouth but Daredevil throws it off her.

The Jester later confesses to Daredevil that there was a man recently who moved to Hell's Kitchen and was practicing black arts of an old Japanese religion called Mikkyo.

The baby demon thing in general is one of the creepiest things I've seen in comics. Well, mainstream comics.

You expect that kinda crap from other lines, but in a Marvel book about a street-level hero? Kinda like how Spidey getting into The Fly kinda territory with his "science gone horribly wrong" plotlines.

Its a real well done moment. It takes skill to get you reading at the right pace and get you that absorbed into a moment that you actually get scared. Locke and Key is the only other comic I think I've been truely scared at. I did jump reading Crossed.

The moment he points out Matt and you look back and see hes been there all along is an awesome unique to comics type of moment. Love it!

Dardevil, for me, is the most interesting character. For so long he has toed the line between hero and villain, more than anybody has, even Batman. Everything he tries to build is broken down, everybody he loves is taken away. It makes him so much more involving to me, because with his stories, for every one, you don't know if the hero will come out on top.

That's one of the reason's I can always see him as someone to be afraid of. He probably wouldn't kill you, probably being the important word here, but he will HURT you. Lord, will he hurt you if he feels he is vindicated in hurting you.

Recently Marvel published really nice softcovers of "Daredevil by Frank Miller" in three volumes, which collects all his original work on the book. It starts off with the Daredevil stuff he drew alone, which results in reading some cracky stories like Daredevil helping a recently blinded Spider-Man with stopping a nuke about to slam into New York, but about two-thirds in we get to the real magic of the work he wrote and drew.

After that, he did two mini-series--Daredevil: Man Without Fear, which is his take on the origin of Daredevil, and Daredevil: Born Again, where Kingpin first found out Daredevil's secret identity. These two both have a lot of different trade types of different prices, so you can find whatever suits you pretty easily.

This arc definitely took me by surprise. Usually, I'd be pretty disappointed at the sudden turn from such an interesting setup into weird supernatural territory, and yeah, the transition doesn't really work here, but that demon baby story is just so creepy that I ended up enjoying it anyway.

Don't be alarmed. The reason I'm on my knees is because I'm worshiping you right now. No really, I look forward to every post of this.

I love the idea of Matt integrating himself in a Catholic help group.... 1) Him interacting with the people of Hell's Kitchen is one of the things that made me fall in love with the series in the first place,2) I miss the Catholic aspect of him; it hasn't shown itself very well as of late.

And whatever happened to his mother? Or the person suspected to be his mother?

I realize most Marvel Superheroes aren't that concerned with their grandparents, but I wonder what Matt knows about his grandparents on both sides. Info in the link suggests maybe Maggie's father forced her to be a nun.

I love Bendis entire run on Daredevil but this particular arc didn't sit well with me. I guess because it drifted into WTF/X-Files territory instead of the familiar gritty, crime comic tone. I love the shift in colouring too thanks to Dave Stewart.

That last speech always gives me chills. The notion of a superhero just sitting down with people and saying, raw and flat-out, this is what I'm trying to do and I'm sorry I don't do it better and you deserve the truth. It didn't even matter what the story leading up to that last speech was--the first time I read this, I went out and bought the trade, one of the few superhero trades I've ever felt the need to buy.

That said, this is one of the times Maleev's photoreferencing leaves me kind of cold--some of those shock faces are just weird and static and fake looking--and oh, hi, the villain today will be played by Kevin Spacey. But seriously, I think that last bit is one of Bendis' finest moments.

Some of this stuff was really good. As pointed out, the covers were really awesome. The ninja scene is a great moment. The first two issues rehash things from earlier arcs but still quite nice. But the demon baby? Meh to the max. I did not care for Decalogue, especially since it could've been so much more. A ten part story with Catholic school boy (Frank Castle's words) Matt and the ten commandments? That would have been cool.

I think the Murdock Papers are up now, aren't they? That arc is the best and was definitely necessary after Decalogue, for me at least.

Thanks so much for sharing these. I've really enjoyed getting to know Daredevil. I haven't seen a comic book look this cinematic in a long time, and *most* of the stories are great. Looking forward to whatever else you've got!

The Bendis/Maleev run on Daredevil is the only thing that has surpassed both the Milller and Miller/Mazuchelli's runs, which were the high water mark for me on the series. I loved Alias, too. hope they don't screw it up to badly when it comes to TV.

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